Super Shelves

Well we have had a lot of radio silence. Sorry, it's that nursery inhabitant sucking up all our time. Also there are big plans afoot for the House of Love, so everything's kind of on hold until we know what's happening there.

But a while ago we did enlist Dr. Lloyd to put up some shelves for us in the sitting room.

Jon is pleased because now the books will hide this bit of plaster that he's never got round to finishing off and sanding down.

Now we can display all our books (well the ones that make us look clever anyway).

Door stop

Ok, so we haven't really done anything in the House of Love for some time. We have a 3.5 month old baby, so get over it. But that doesn't mean things have totally dried up. We commissioned Stephen to make this amazing door stop for us. Now we don't have to bend down prop the door open - result!

Bolt!

So like all well designed bathroom doors ours is made of glass and doesn't have a bolt. We find it adds to the excitement for visitors to the House of Love; never sure if someone will walk in on you or watch you through the glass. But apparently people actually find this unsettling!

Luckily, on a trip to see the new Grandchild, Stephen brought along his bolt collection.

Inspecting the door - forgot to mention it doesn't close properly either.

Planning away some of the wood will help. 

Stephen supervises Jon's work.

neither of these ones will fit.

bingo!

We've put it really high up so Patrick Jones can't lock himself in and necessitate calling out the fire brigade.

Telephone move (labour of love)

Two weeks ago I decided it was time to take Mum Guthrie's advice and move the telephone so that we could clear the cabinet from the hallway. 

Hallway blocked by telephone cabinet and other paraphernalia. 

So I got some extension cable from Wilko and got to it.

Extension cable all round the door and telephone now housed next to the sofa; we've moved the cabinet and have a nice clear hallway - win! 

And then my waters broke, so the House of Love now has an extra resident. Good job we've got a clear hallway to store her pram in.

Keep on pinning

We've been adding some more pictures and postcards to our kitchen wall.

On our holiday before last we got a bit obsessed with spotting Felipe IV around the Prado. Now we can spot him in our house too!!

We've also added some artistic black and white selfies from when we were younger and more attractive (and could work a proper camera).

Magic!

We've had this lovely little print from the local Two Pipe Problem Letterpress for a while now but not really been able to decide where to put it. But now we have the nursery, this is the obvious place.

William Morris, Jesus Palomino, Jeremy Deller and Grayson Perry (one of these is NOT in my house)

Hi. Jon here. I don't write many of these because I've been busy with other things. We've been expanding our hall picture wall, which it seems we last touched just over a year ago.

When I saw that our old friend Jenny was selling digital prints made from her William Morris portraits I really, really wanted one. Hannah was all like, "but isn't a bit of a cliché having a picture of William Morris in our house in #awesomestow" (fuck you Grayson Perry), but I was like, "but I want it". She was worried we'd look like a stereotypical Walthamstow middle-class gentrifying couple appropriating Socialist icons without fulling understanding their ideology. But I was like; "but I want to buy it". (Currently deciding where to hang the Lenin banner I bought on a school trip to the former USSR when I was 16, yah).

While we were at it, we re-hung my Jesus Palomino "Stop TV" poster. Hannah wanted to iron out the creases some more, but I was like "no! They represent its journey to our home!?".

Last weekend, we also went to the William Morris Gallery to see Jeremy Deller's Venice Biennale exhibition and made an ink-stamped print of Godzilla Morris and Abramovitch's yacht (according to the exhibition guide; a true story!). Not sure where to hang it yet. Probably also on this wall.

Alphabet

James and Katie Lloyd bought us a nice alphabet. This is the first picture we've put up in the nursery.  

Observent readers will also notice a rather smashing fringe hanging from the bookcase - thank you to Tamilla for making this for my party last weekend; hope you don't mind I've swiped it for the nursery.

I like the Zig-Zag Zebra.

Wardrobe organising

I'm not even going to show you what a state my wardrobe was in before I started clearing it out - too embarrassing even for a girl who posts publicly about every minor change she makes in her house. Suffice to say that big space under the hanging clothes wasn't really being used in a very sensible way.

But now it is! With bags where I can see them, gloves, hats and belts with their own individual boxes and the most expensive footwear I ever bought (some purple suede knee high boots you will probably never see me wear) somewhere I can actually access them.

Cot

Getting all my bits sorted

COT! It's already looking like a proper nursery. Just need to put up some pictures and stuff now.

Oh and here's the baby's first toy - a lovely fabric rat that Jon's Mum made for her.